VIRGINIA -- Hello. I'm writing to review Cavalier Telephone. This is the worst company I have ever done business with. I'm frequently faced with Customer Service Reps who do not have the necessary information to do their job, which is bad, but with this company, it is more a matter of the actual company policies that are underhanded and downright illegal.

I signed up for Cavalier Telephone in Virginia in early March 09. Thankfully I did not take them up on their offer to refer anyone else because I wanted to see how it worked out first. I would have been mortified if I had gotten anyone else caught up in what I'm dealing with. It took them over 10 days to get my service activated, even though I received my DSL modem long before then. Once I received notification that my service had been activated, I attempted to install the modem. I am very computer savvy and have never had a problem with self-installation. However, with this service, the installation did not work at all, and would have been impossible for a non-computer person to follow. When I had trouble with the install, and received a notification that I needed to call tech support, the number provided in the install wizard was for directory assistance in New York, not their tech support.

I finally found the number for their tech support and called it. After waiting on hold for over 15 minutes (the standard time for anything other than signing up) I got an agent who did not know anything about how modems work. She was just following a script, and not very well at that. She even went so far as to tell me the reason I couldn't pick up the wireless signal was because of my computer, even though I was picking up other signals in my complex at that very moment, and have used the same computer to pick up wireless signals everywhere from my public library to the local coffee shop. We finally scheduled a technician to come out (they had offered a free professional installation, which I had not expected to need to take them up on).

The day before he was to come, I figured out how to fix the problem myself (the install defaults to a silly option for security and you have to manually fix it, which works differently depending on whether your wireless is managed by Windows or other software). He came out anyway just to check for any other problems. While he was here, he literally asked me show him how I got the wireless running. Turns out that they didn't even train their own installation professionals on how their convoluted install process works before sending them out to perform installs.

Even after my wireless was installed, I continued having problems, so another trouble call was scheduled. The technician did not come during the scheduled window, even though I explained that I was leaving town the next day and would not be back for two weeks. So, they agreed to call me to schedule a trouble call for when I return and to credit me back for the time that I was without service (basically since I joined).

Of course, they did not bother to call, but it was too late by then anyway. My previous phone company had agreed to beat their offer, so I decided to switch back. Turns out, when Cavalier asked during sign up if it was okay for them to place a freeze on my long distance carrier preventing anyone from switching me without my express permission that they also illegally placed a hold on my local and regional carrier. So, in order for me to even schedule a "number port" from them to my new (formerly old) carrier, I had to call them. I did, and was told that it would take 7-10 business days for them to allow the number to be accessed by the new carrier, and then 7-10 more business days before the actual service could be switched.

Not wanting to stay with such a terrible company a day longer than necessary, I decided to suck it up and just get a new number. After all, they claimed that the reason it was going to take so long was because of the complex issues involved with number portability (although they seem to be the only ones with these complex issues...). So, I called my carrier back and told them to set me up with a whole new number. I also asked them at that time if I needed to do anything to notify Cavalier that I was cancelling. They indicated that it is not possible for two phone carriers to be on the same line at the same time, so once their service kicked in on my activation date, Cavalier would no longer be my carrier. As such, I did not have to call them unless I Just wanted to. I almost did not call them since I figured even an underhanded company like Cavalier wouldn't try to charge me after I'm with another carrier, right?

Turns out that they claim it takes up to 10 business days for their system to fully close out an account. I am incredulous, asking them why it takes them 10 days to discontinue service when other companies can do it in a matter of hours. No, they corrected me. My actual service would be disconnected within 24-48 hours from the time I made the request but it would take the system 10 business days to close out the account and they planned to continue charging me during this time. I pointed out that on April 17 my other carrier would begin providing service and there was no way they could possibly claim to be providing service when I had another carrier providing service on that line. No matter, it is evidently standard practice for them to charge long past the time the service is disconnected anyway.

By this point I am livid. I mean, I have never had full internet service; they refused to let me port my number gracefully, and now they are telling me that they are going to knowingly charge me for services they have no intention of providing. So at this point I mention the 30 day guarantee. It seems if you cancel within 30 days, you are supposed to be responsible for only the shipping, fees, and taxes you were charged. Well, since my phone worked even while my internet wasn't, and since the shipping, taxes, and fees came to roughly an amount that I would consider fair for the phone service, I was willing to accept that and instructed them to cancel my account immediately under the guarantee.

But then the agent informs me that since it takes them 10 days to close out the account (even though my service would be disconnected within 24 hours of the request) that would put me past 30 days from March 17, and so I would not be eligible for the 30 day guarantee. I almost laughed before I realized the agent wasn't kidding. I am telling them to cancel my service on the 24th day of having it, after multiple calls telling them it isn't working (so it's not like I waited until the 29th day or anything) and they are saying that since they can't get their ducks in a row to close out my account until two weeks from today (the 10th business day) that I am not within the time of the 30 day guarantee--even though I am calling on the 24th day!

Basically, this company is dishonest, underhanded, and sneaky, and they also have poor customer service (even before they knew I was planning to cancel), poor tech support, and poor software design. In short, they are just plain bad. Please please do NOT work with this company under any circumstances no matter how good the deal they are offering seems.

(to put this in perspective, I had had several bad experiences with my previous carrier over the past 5 years, which is why I originally left for Cavalier Telephone. The experiences I have had with this company are so bad that I am literally THRILLED to be going back to that carrier, even with a 5 year history of problems.)

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Horrible Customers Support and Management

Posted by Stasevich on 03/10/2006

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA -- Here's my complain that I originally filed with BBB, in the beginning of 2005. The company replied and agreed to reRate my calls to the PRIMUS ld provider I was supposed to have.
I faxed them all required docs, and bills they never replied, I called number of times to their billing dep, and left messages with Manager, but no response.

they sent my account to collections and trying to get $800 from me. I'm trying to fight them.
STAY AWAY!!!
I disconnected after 2 months, and switched back to Verizon.

The cavalier service was activated around September 20th.
On Oct. 25th, I noticed that I could dial some local 215 numbers.
I called next morning, after extended wait time, I was first given several different answers to what could be a problem and was transferred between departments several times, was told that I have $480+ bill outstanding and the long distance and toll calls have been blocked because of possible fraud, as I was a new customer.
I was shocked by the word LONG DISTANCE, as prior to switching I was assured that the PRIMUS (that I still have as my long distance provider) would stay my long distance company. Of course this time they had no records of me requesting this change, I told what happened when I was receiving the service. After arguing why this happened they sort of agree to switch me to PRIMUS and recalculate the rates according to PRIMUS rates. I still did not get my 1st bill, so I donât even know how high they LD rates but I guess they outrages, since I have 480$ balance in 1 month (about 3 times my normal), and it even caused them to block the calling.
For 2 days I have been trying to have them reactivate the local calling, they tell me it is active and that they only calls that blocked are long distance and toll calls, I cannot dial about 80% of local 215 and 267 numbers, that was originally promised to me would be covered under my plan, same as VERIZON.
After I gave them some local 215 number I could not dial a waited on hold for another 30mins, they told that Philadelphia metropolitan area calling would reactivated within 24hrs. Latte same person (Christine) called, now saying that it would not be reactivated, until I pay the bill, THE BILL THAT I STILL HAVE NOT RECEIVED.
I cannot dial many important numbers, and my home phone local service has been disabled, because without any prior notice or warning from them
I was not aware of the balance, or that they ARE MY LONG DISTANCE PROVIDER.
Their hold time is outrageous, I was on the phone for 2.5 hours yesterday, of that I was actually talking to them for no more than 20 minutes.
They keep giving me runarounds, and cannot provide straight answer even to WHY most of the local 215 calls are not going trough when they are supposed to be FREE per plan.
The web site also does not have the description of all areas that are covered. They simple run a horrible business and misled the customers; I would strongly discourage anyone from using the service.

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Still being charged yet no service

Posted by rachmuni96 on 09/28/2011

This review is for the entire Cavalier Telephone corporation.
I have never experienced such awful customer service as I have with this company. I have been without a phone line since July 14th. It is now September 28th and not only is Cavalier not fixing my issue but they keep sending me invoices, with finance charges, threatening to destroy my personal credit and will not stop. I have been on the phone with their customer service representatives for months to no avail. They are located in the Philippines and cannot seem to grasp the concept of customers' frustration about being charged for services not rendered. I finally broke down and paid one bill with the promise that I won't receive any more and then I got another bill in the mail. Upon further complain to the company I am still being told that I have to keep paying invoices regardless if my phone line works or not until they fix the problem and then I'll be reimbursed. I don't know how that works out of the country but I think every American will agree with me that, that just doesn't fly. I cannot say enough poor things about this customer service experience. I highly urge everyone to pass the word that this is not a company to spend money with. Cavalier Telephone does not deserve our hard earned money. They do not deserve our business. Their corporate structure and customer service is as good as throwing money in the toilet. I highly urge ever current Cavalier customer to jump ship. Saving money from their low rates isn't worth the head ache of their horrid customer service policies. I truly hope someone in Cavalier Corporate Offices IN AMERICA reads this. I am beyond livid and will keep shouting about how awful this company is until I'm blue in the face.

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Excellent Customer Service

Posted by jldel on 01/28/2011

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA -- I have never written a review of any company, but I have been so impressed by Cavalier's customer service that they deserve to be recognized.

I have used them for 2 years. I switched to Cavalier from Verizon (which I had for almost 10 years)because there were service issues with my phone that they refused to fix. I purchased a phone line and DSL. The DSL didn't work because of the same issue I was having with Verizon. I didn't contact customer service because I didn't have the money to pay for a service call or the patience to make the call.

After about a month, Cavalier called me to say that they saw that I had never hooked up my DSL; and asked if I needed assistance. They offered to send someone out for free to hook it up for me. I agreed, knowing that it was the same issue that Verizon couldn't fix for less than $300, but decided to see what they said. A tech came out, and had it fixed within an hour, for no charge. For a procrastinator like me, who hates to make phone calls, this was the greatest service I could have hoped for.

I have never needed contact with them again, since two years ago, until this week. I subscribed to Netflix but was not able to stream for more than a few minutes without it stopping to retrieve more data. I sent a message to the support email to say that my connection was slow and asked if there was an update I had missed.

I received a call within a half an hour. Ian said that he had already checked into my issue, I needed a modem upgrade, and it was on its way to me, in the mail, free of charge.

A few days later, I did not have any Internet access and no dial tone on the phone. I sent another message to the support email and, again, received a call within a half an hour. I, unfortunately, did not get the customer service rep's name, but he was also extremely nice and helpful. The issue stemmed from the service ticket that was submitted from the ticket to upgrade my hardware. He was able to change the settings on my account and fix the issue. My phone had a dial tone within 5 minutes of being on the phone with him and the Internet was back on within 8 minutes. He stayed on the phone the whole time to make sure it was working.
I am very impressed with the response time, courtesy, and results of everyone I have dealt with at Cavalier. I would recommend them to everyone.

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Worst Company

Posted by Brooksie on 03/30/2009

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA -- I don't even know where to begin or why I stayed with this company for so long. First off, it took cavalier three months to get service in my house in 2006. For the past several years I had nothing but problems with the internet and phone being up and down, up and down, up and down because of the poor connection. I am a full time nursing student who is in need of a good internet service and with the problems that I have had with this company added stress to my studies. After speaking with representatives over the past years, well you can just call them liars. Because they promise your internet will be up one day and then it takes them two weeks to get you back up and running. Not only that but they billed me an outrageous bill of $300 and then turned and said it was because they audit my account. Because I never made a payment since 2006. So where were my funds going while on bill pay. Next thing is they had two accounts open in my name. I had no knowledge of it. I thought I had Phonemon. Here I had Phonemon and another services which they had the balls to send to my credit report. Which I had to dispute. I sent the headquarters three letters indicating my problems and never heard a word from them. To add more to this long note, they are now charging me another $200 bill. Stating that I have to pay for long distance calls. I am supposed to have phoneom. Long distance calls are supposed to be sometimes correct my plan for $40 a month and I'm trying to dispute that but I am getting no where. They keep telling me that they are sending it to the billing department. Well its been a month. How long does the billing department take to figure out that they are stealing from customers. I am so fed up with this company. On top of this insanity, I am still with them. Well, they better get their acts straight, I have everything recorded and records in a file that is nice and thick and I am willing and ready to take legal action with this company.

I put up with so much stress and anxiety not to mention charging up my cell phone bills calling Cavalier about problems. I'm giving them 3 days to get their act straight, 3 days before they send this bill to my credit. If this so happens, I will take this further. They are not getting anymore cash from me. I'm done!!!!!!!!!!!

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Mother Of Them All

Posted by bjlynn on 03/02/2009

I liked Cavalier, until I moved. I moved from an apartment to a house sharing situation. I wanted to keep my phone and internet service. I called Cavalier in November to make the request. Told them I was moving on Dec 13, so would like to keep the phone hooked up through Dec 11, and turned on in new place on Dec 12. Was told since it was a separate line with a different company someone would need to be there to be sure it got hooked to correct room. Got home from work on Dec 5, phone dead, internet still working. Called tech, was told they already started moving the service, you moving. I replied it's not supposed to be done for another week. Tech said he could not promise, but would see if he could get service back. Came home next day no phone. Called the company on Monday, got nowhere and thought OK I will accept it. Called back on Dec 11 to make sure they were going to go their next day as I had arranged for someone to be there. Was told it had already been done. I said not possible, no one was there to let them in. She put me on hold, came back and said 1907 xxxxx. No I replied, 1908. I said tell you what I'm just going to cancel. I could not believe what she said next "cancel the move? I said no, cancel Cavalier service, I'm done.

Gets even better, a month later I get a bill for $85 for the billing period of Dec 6-Jan 7. Called again, was told the could adjust it down to $50 for what I asked. The man said it was the best he could do. I wrote them a letter, but they still sent me a bill for $50. Have file a complaint with BBB & Consumer protection.

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Unethical Business Practices -- I Feel Ripped-Off

Posted by Where Is Mom Bell on 12/30/2008

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA -- Cavalier Telephone has escalated my phone bill from $89.00 per month for cable, internet, phone services to what is now $950.00 per month. They sold me a contract for which I got off of their website and then later denied ever having sold this package to me. At that point they changed the price slowly every month raising the price until the phone was disconnected and they thought I would turn it back on but instead told them to disconnect the service completely. In October as I always do I paid my monthly amount which in my opinion was more than enough. They denied ever having received the monies I spent hours on the phone talking to message machines, a man that wanted no explantation but only money and refused to discuss any matters via his taped message. Likewise, their Customer Service is horrible they don't work on weekends unless you are calling someone who screams at you on the phone in Fla and I live in VA! But she will not allow you to talk to management to see if they have the knowledge to resolve the problems that you are having. I finally spoke to Barbara who was supposed to be a Manager who only sent the issue to a telephone agent who had no authority as he puts it to resolve the manner.

I am exhausted in being mistreated by a telephone company. I feel like I work for this company but I'm not getting a pay check. This is a very crazy situation. It's like being in a third world, highly undeveloped country and not being able to speak the language to communicate your issues. This company should be ashamed of how they are operating in America where customer service used to represent that the customer is always correct.

Why is Cavalier so defensive? Why do they believe that their customers are not telling the truth? Do they think the customer is trying to rip them off? Or they really the rippers of customers money. I don't like being with a company that makes me feel this way. I entrust them to be honest. They don't send out contracts like Mom Bell used to do prior to accepting a service and the change everything in midway without a notice. What do they think Americans are getting raises everyday at work! I don't think so! They are the only ones getting raises via what appears to be some dishonest business practices.

I've had enough of this madness and I'm exhausted with being mistreated by the telephone company. But guess what I can only have Cavalier Telephone in my development so there are no other choices for me unless I resolve this matter with them which up to this point has been almost impossible! By the way in closing their repair company has been out to my house at least 7-8 times within a one year period. (crazy) I don't feel confident that this company really knows what they are doing to people. Customer Service is only effective as the Executive Staff and Board of Directors.

CM

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Horrible Service

Posted by Ladydee on 12/14/2007

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND -- Cavalier has the worst phone service and customer service that I have ever encountered. The customer service reps. and the supervisors are the most arrogant and rude of any customer service representatives. Bills collectors have better manners and service that your representatives. On almost every occasion that I have spoken to a representative, I was spoken to rudely. The hold time it unshaded of, you have to wait to speak to a rep. on the average of 15 to 45 minutes, then you often get transferred to other reps and have to wait another 15 to 45 minutes for those reps to answer (and that's if they answer you question correctly). On day I got so frustrated with the hold time and rude reps. that I cried.

I have had an ongoing repair issue for at least a year. I have contacted repair and customer service too many times to count concerning this issue. I have been promised every time that my phone issue will be corrected, to date my phone service still has that issue.

I have even been treated as if I did something wrong when I have spoken to reps, about this ongoing phone issue.

Please be advised that Cavalier has a very nasty reputation for treating customers rudely. I know of persons that have changed their phone company from cavalier to another company as a result. When Cavalier calls to offer them perks to come back they refuse because the service is so horrible.

On a scale of 1-10 I rate Cavalier phone service and customer service a 1, and that is too high.

Bad reviews probably mean nothing too this company because they don't care about your customers and the actions of your reps,supervisors, repair technicians speaks volumes. One day they will learn to respect their customer when they start leaving by the droves and their profit begins to plummet. Until then I will spread the word to everyone that I know, If you want good phone service and if you want to be treated with respect, do not choose Cavalier phone company, because you will only get courteous service when you initially sign up, after that it goes Quickly down hill.

An unappreciated Cavalier customer

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Failed to Credit Pre Paid Fees When Service Cancelled

Posted by Clifford on 07/16/2012

Rating: 1/51

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY -- After I cancelled my telephone service, Cavalier refused to provide a partial refund of pre-paid fees. First they said they don't refund fees and taxes. Then, when I showed them that they had already refunded 5 of the 8 pre-paid fees and taxes, then they simply refused to refund the remaining 3. A manager told me, "I'm not going to give you any money."

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Rip off billing practice

Posted by Sophia on 05/12/2011

PALM HARBOR, FLORIDA -- Cavalier likes to charge finance charge, even if it's 1 day late due to crowded mail during holiday time or weekend! And they don't even care to give any 1-time courtesy refund.

Most importantly, they charge for 'un-used' service, as long as their own documentation did not show a 30-day notice. They charged us for 2 months of service fees for a fax line that we requested to discontinued way ahead, and no refund whatsoever! We then moved phone service to a different service provider, Cavalier placed a hold on the transfer and forced us to call them. When we called, the customer service representative did not notify about the 30-day notice, and only informed us about the final bill will come soon. We paid the first bill thinking that was the final bill, but yet another bill came, again with 1.5% finance charge. When we called, Cavalier claimed that we did not notify 30 days ahead and did not even care to offer refund of the money. This is out right holding us responsible for 'lack of documentation' by their customer service rep.
I'd like to tell the whole world not to use their services!!!